Day 269! It was another lazy day in Melbourne, but this time it was because I was getting sick. The weather was perfect today and the hostel did put on a very nice bbq for us, so it wasn’t a wasted day whatsoever!

Yep… unfortunately… I have a cold.

I woke up this morning a bit worse than how I went to bed. I was super congested and felt pretty exhausted. I’ve been just waiting for this moment to come because a lot of my hostel mates around me have slowly been getting sick as well.

I tried to keep sleeping in, but eventually I decided a warm shower was the next best thing. So I did that and then went downstairs to make myself breakfast.

I went the English route today and had a couple of sausages with toast, no beans though (unfortunate).

I then went to the TV room to do more reading. I’m closing in on the end of this book… but it’s only the first half of the first book. Hopefully when I finish, the used book store will still have the second part and will let me exchange them, or at least get a discount for returning the first.

I started feeling crappy again so I made my way back upstairs to take some meds and take a nap. The nap wasn’t very successful so I laid in bed and applied for some jobs all across Australia. I was looking into rural work, scuba diving, and potentially pearl farming (which combines the two)… so we’ll see if anything sticks!

1:30pm rolled around and it was time for lunch.

I was feeling a bit better by this point and was chit chatting with some of the French crew. They invited me to come eat with them outside and enjoy the weather.

They are a fun group to hang out with and they were planning on going to the park to play soccer. So I joined them for that as well! We ended up kicking the ball around for a bit and also peppered a volleyball for a little too (hitting the volleyball back and forth).

The warmth and sun made me feel a lot better. But this effect slowly wore off the rest of the night.

When we got back to the hostel, it was nearing the time for our hostel barbecue! We got inside and saw a ton of vegetables sitting on the table with one staff member cutting them. So we offered to help.

I cut more tomatoes and mushrooms than I think I’ll ever cut again. But it was nice to help and also meant we’d be eating sooner.

It took a bit for the barbecue to get fully going. They said 5pm but it took just about 2 hours after that to start eating. I guess 5pm was the start cooking time.

It was okay though, all the hostel goers sat around and chatted until it was all ready. And then we feasted!

There was a ton of food. And the best part, it was free! I had my fair share with three nice big bowls of food. It gave me a nice taste of home and made me miss Kansas City bbq. But it was a good substitute for now.

I started feeling pretty blah as the sun went down and it started getting cold again. So I made myself some tea and once I finished I snuck upstairs to call it a very early night.

I’m hoping I start feeling better tonight because tomorrow is the Australian Football finals and I’d love to celebrate with everyone… but as always, I guess we’ll see!

– Elie